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UGA College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences Department of Crop & Soil Sciences
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News Stories - Page 24

Professor David Bertioli and senior research scientist Soraya Leal-Bertioli work together with peanut plants in their greenhouses at the Center for Applied Genetic Technologies. CAES News
New peanut has a wild past and domesticated present 05/18/21 Allison Floyd
The wild relatives of modern peanut plants have the ability to withstand disease in ways that modern peanut plants can’t. The genetic diversity of these wild relatives means that they can shrug off the diseases that kill farmers’ peanut crops, but they also produce tiny nuts that are difficult to harvest because they burrow deep in the soil.
Most of the U.S. was warmer, and the eastern two-thirds of the contiguous U.S. was wetter, from 1991–2020 than the previous normals period, 1981–2010. With 20 years of overlap between the current normals and the previous iteration (1991–2010), annual changes between these two data sets were somewhat muted compared to trends over the same period. Monthly and seasonal changes are more dynamic. For example, the current normals for the northern-central U.S. are cooler in the spring, while much of the Southeast is now warmer in October, cooler in November and warmer again in December. Atmospheric circulation dynamics and surface feedbacks result in substantial differences from month to month and region to region. CAES News
Updated U.S. climate data shows rise in average temperatures across most of the nation 05/13/21 Maria M. Lameiras
Day-to-day swings in temperature are an accepted part of the weather in many areas around the country. However, when 30-year averages of daily temperature fluctuations from thousands of stations around the country indicate a steady change in average temperatures over time, there are tangible implications for agriculture, energy consumption and many other aspects of daily life.
UGA Extension offices are often a critical resource for many Farm to School programs and gardens, offering curricula, publications and sometimes even hands-on labor. CAES News
UGA Extension offers support for Farm to School programs 04/22/21 Josh Paine
The idea and principles of Farm to School programs have been around for more than two decades, but it took nearly half that time for adoption and funding to garner growth and wider attention.
UGA researchers have been looking for ways to reverse the decline of pollinator populations by examining centipedegrass as a food source for pollinators. CAES News
Your lawn could help save the bees 04/07/21 Maggie Narvil
Over the past few decades, pollinators have been in decline worldwide, which is concerning because 70% of crops used for human food depend on pollinators. Turfgrasses – used for most residential lawns – often take some of the blame for pollinator decline as they are known to be wind-pollinated and were thought not to serve as a pollinator food source, until now.
The Peanut Innovation Lab has posted the second in a pair of animations giving farmers valuable advice on growing groundnut. This edition focuses on late-season information related to harvest and storage, and might be shown together with the first animation or separately. CAES News
Groundnut animation shows keys to late-season success 04/02/21 Allison Floyd
The Peanut Innovation Lab has posted the second in a pair of animations giving farmers valuable advice on growing groundnut. This edition focuses on late-season information related to harvest and storage, and might be shown together with the first animation or separately. The animations, produced by Scientific Animations Without Borders (SAWBO), relay to smallholder farmers proven methods to protect and improve yield. The message of the videos was shaped through interviews and surveys with partners in Africa to ensure that the information is prioritized to have the most impact.
Danielle Essandoh, a master’s student at Makerere University in Uganda, grew out 376 lines of plants derived from peanut ancestors and looked for resistance to modern diseases. The project, headed by Soraya Leal-Bertioli at the University of Georgia, could result in new varieties that allow African farmers to fight plant diseases that can decimate a crop. CAES News
Student Profile: Tapping ancient genes helps to fight modern diseases 04/02/21 Allison Floyd
Danielle Essandoh always liked plants, but as she prepares to defend her master’s thesis for a degree in plant breeding from Makerere University in Uganda, she sees how her love of plants grew into a passion for helping people. Specifically, the work could lead to improved varieties that can withstand two particular diseases that can destroy groundnut crops in eastern Africa – groundnut rosette disease and late leaf spot.